Though a large percentage of those sales will stem from the $315 million mall under construction, existing stores and restaurants lining the corridor from Interstate 75 to Honore Avenue already account for millions of dollars in sales each year.

And while that's encouraging for Benderson Development Co., a partner on the mall project and the builder of most of the retail on University near the interstate, it is also an opportunity for homebuilders.

In all, the new mall and surrounding offices alone are expected to create 2,000 jobs in the next year or so, said Mark Chait, Benderson's executive director of leasing for the Southeast.

But because many of those new jobs will not be high-wage positions, builders will need to offer more apartments, town homes and affordable condos.

“When fully built out, the sales tax dollars will be phenomenal,” Chait told a Manatee-Sarasota Building Industry Association gathering on Wednesday. “We expect there will be a billion dollars in sales in Year 1, in that retail corridor – $440 million from the mall and approximately $600 million from the surrounding retailing.

“People are going to want to live in that area,” he added.

The 880,000-square-foot mall, to be anchored by Saks Fifth Avenue, Macy's and Dillard's, will be among a select few new enclosed malls in the nation to debut in 2014.

Already, the area is home to retailers like Sports Authority, The Fresh Market, Kohl's, Fit2Run, Marshall's, Total Wine and more. Nordstrom Rack, the Seattle-based department store chain's discount offering, will debut Nov. 7.

Added to that total, roughly 50 percent of the mall's merchants will be new to the area, which could have ripple effects throughout Southwest Florida. Chait predicts many of the new players will expand throughout the area.

“Most national retailers don't come into a market with one store,” said Chait.

And because employees of those new stores and offices will likely want to live within five to 10 miles of their jobs, builders could be providing housing for years to come to satisfy demand.

“This is going to be a long-term project,” Alan Anderson, executive vice president of the builders' association, said following the event.

“It is going to create more need for a wide variety of housing,” he said. “Some of the housing we currently don't have is what could be described as workforce housing: lower-end but not the bottom end of the market.”

Anderson said he knows of a trio of apartment complexes being built or expanded near the University Parkway retail corridor.

“I see those apartments getting rented in record time,” Anderson said.

Lost Creek, a 400-unit complex along Lakewood Ranch Boulevard, was completely leased in less than six months, he said. Its developer is now expanding the complex.

Pat Neal, president of one of the region's most active homebuilders, said the corridor is fast becoming a regional hub. “It is the center of our universe. It is jobs, employment, public transportation,” Neal said.

The company is currently developing Woodbrook, on nearby Lockwood Ridge Road, and has other projects in the offing.

Neal said cottages at Woodbrook would start in the high $100,000s.

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